Low Carb Peanut Butter Cups in Easy to Make Squares

The flavor of low carb peanut butter cups in easy to make squares. Forget the molds and save time by making this popular candy in bar form.

Are you a lover of the popular peanut butter cup candy? I certainly am. It doesn’t get much better than the flavor of yummy peanut butter coated in chocolate.

This is a modification of the low carb peanut butter fudge recipe. Although I liked the fudge, I thought the Splenda made it too sweet and it was a bit plain. What it really needed was a layer of chocolate on top!

For this easy low carb peanut butter cups recipe, I changed the sweetener to a mixture of stevia and erythritol which tones down the sweetness. I also spread melted chocolate on top.

The added layer of chocolate makes the fudge taste just like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup! I think these squares would taste amazing cut up and blended into low carb vanilla ice cream – a homemade low carb DQ Blizzard.

These low carb peanut butter cups in squares reminds me of a recipe that I learned how to make in middle school Home Economics class. That recipe mixed graham cracker crumbs into the peanut butter mixture as well as regular powdered sugar.

This version of easy to make low carb peanut butter cups in squares brought back memories. It was so fun back in those days as a young teenager learning how to make food with friends.

In fact, I still have the handwritten note that my classmate gave me for the original peanut butter cup bar recipe we made together in 8th grade. I loved the recipe so much, I kept it in my mother’s Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.

That book was later handed down to me since I used the cookbook much more than my mom. It’s great to be able to enjoy the same taste in a much healthier version of the peanut butter chocolate candy recipe.

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Notes

Each square has about 5.1g erythritol

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Low Carb Peanut Butter Cups in Easy Squares

Amount Per Serving (1 square)

Calories 129Calories from Fat 81

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 9g14%

Saturated Fat 5g25%

Polyunsaturated Fat 1g

Monounsaturated Fat 1g

Cholesterol 7mg2%

Sodium 49mg2%

Potassium 1mg0%

Total Carbohydrates 3g1%

Dietary Fiber 1g4%

Protein 4g8%

Vitamin A2%

Vitamin C0%

Calcium1%

Iron5%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Note on Nutritional Information

Nutritional information for the recipe is provided as a courtesy and is approximate only. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs are not included in carb counts as it has been shown not to impact blood sugar. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber.

Comments

Made these last night. Excellent taste and texture. I didn’t have vanilla protein powder so I substituted with Quest Peanut Butter Protein Powder. I also used chunky natural peanut butter. I found it to be a bit too sweet (maybe because the chunky has less butter because of the nut pieces? So I added another 1/2 cup of the chunky peanut butter .) Perfection! Maybe if using chunky peanut butter you need more? I did! 😉 Thank you for this yummy recipe!

Omgoodness, I love your website! Soooo many great recipes for those of us eating low carbs! Thank you so much for sharing all of your recipes!! I have so many I have printed and plan to make, but I do believe one of your Peanut Butter &/or PB cup recipes will be made TOMORROW!!! They all look delicious!!

OH. MY. STARS.
I just made these and I might be making these weekly now. I don’t really like sweeteners, so I skipped it entirely. I added a scant tablespoon of coconut flour to help bulk it up a little since I left out the erythritol. Then I used an 80% chocolate bar melted with 1 T kerry gold butter for the top and OMG these taste so much like the high carb version I used to make! I’m so happy, and my non-keto, peanut butter-loving husband is thrilled as well! Thank you!

If it’s concentrated monk fruit, you’ll need a lot less and may need to add in a bulking agent. I find that about 3/4 to 1 teaspoon of concentrated monk fruit powder is needed to replace a half cup of Swerve.

I have always had a sweet tooth and I wanted a really good THM type recipe . This is my favorite – hands down! I too chill the filling in the freezer for a while so the topping doesn’t. melt andmix in .The recipe is easy and quick to make. Thanks loads for rescuing my sweet tooth! 😄

Surprisingly similar to Reese’s! Made mine with chocolate whey and they turned out great – will definitely try with PB-flavored whey next! Interested in substituting PB2 powdered peanut butter instead of natural to increase protein, as well. Thanks for the recipe, highly recommend!

If i want to try out a plant based protein powder in place of the whey, would it effect the taste much? I have Sun Warrior.
Or can I leave it out totally?
Alternately – what could I sub it with?
Thanks much!

I wanted to try these tonight because I was craving something sweet. Went to start and only had 1/4 cup of peanut butter and chocolate protein powder.
I halved the recipe and used the chocolate powder and left the chocolate topping off,they are delicious!
I still want to try them the original way but I will be making a regular batch with the chocolate powder again.
Thank you for the recipe!
P.s. I did not add the stevie due to the sweetness of the protein powder.

Do you think I could make this using only pure stevia powder, or a combination of stevia and just plain monk fruit, if there is such a thing? (I can’t tolerate any of the sugar alcohols.) If so, how much stevia and / or monk fruit would I use? Thanks!

My hubby loved these! Thanks! I just used cocoa powder mixed with some of the filling to add a chocolate topping since I didn’t have SF chocolate. I used 2T stevia and erythritol blend – blended up in my ninja to make a powder- and an extra half scoop of protein powder and they were great.

I want to try your version, the sf chic chips without militia are expensive! I’m afraid of messing it up though…. I’m one that has to have an exact recipe, and even I STILL may mess it up! LOL. I’d love to make these for me and the hubby though, he’s in ketosis and I’m doing low carb for health reasons.

I’ve made this twice and love it, but the chocolate doesn’t stay on top, it swirls into the peanut butter layer. I’m going to try putting the peanut butter layer in the fridge for an hour and then putting the chocolate on top next time.

I realize this was posted a while ago, but I am new to your page and love your recipes. My question is….is there a sweetener that does not give you the cold sensation that Swerve does? I have tried Stevia too but don’t care for the taste. Thanks in advance for your help.

You could use xylitol, but it’s a sugar alcohol that my impact blood sugar level. Monk fruit is a sweetener that I like, but it’s often mixed with erythritol which is what gives that cooling sensation. I find that you have to blend various sweeteners to get the best taste. Inulin is a fiber sweetener that you can try too, but the fiber carbs may impact your sugar level so use with caution.

I have made many low carb deserts that were disappointing or epic fails. This is definitely not one of them! This is the best I have ever made and recommend highly. I followed the recipe except I added just a small amount of Swerve to the chocolate topping. Thanks so much for sharing.

Hi! I’m wondering if you could use the Pyure Stevia blend found at Wal-Mart? I also have some Trim Healthy Mama (erithrital and xylitol blends)sweeteners but not enough. I love love love PB cups so excited to try this!

In a 7×11 pan, if you chop one inch to a side you end up with 77 pieces (7*11), so we’re talking about around 1×2″ bars, which aren’t large but also shouldn’t be hard to handle. To get 35 pieces, go about 2.2 inches along the 11″ direction (ie, into 5 strips) and 1″ in the 7″ direction (ie, into 7 strips). Alternatively you could flip things and cut the 11″ side into 7 strips and the 7″ side into 5 strips for more square “bars”, but I tend to like the more rectangular shape and the math works out much better that way too 🙂

Of course, in a larger dish you’ll end up with thinner bars (about 2/3 the thickness in a 9×13 pan as in a 7×11 pan), but using the same number of cuts (five pieces in the long direction and 7 in the short direction) you’ll get the same 35 pieces with about the same ~2×1 rectangle shape. You’ll just need to do your own math to figure out how this a fifth of 13 inches is etc. Since there isn’t any baking to be done, you can really make these any shape you want, even using ex an 8×8 pan to make the bars 20% thicker (1.6×2.67 inches if you go five-across/seven-down as before for 35 pieces) – although note that the thicker the bars are the more your portions will be affected by any side slope to the edges of the baking dish if you are trying to be super-precise about portioning these out.

Holy cow these are FAN. TAS. TIC!!! My kiddo is fighting me for them, wanted them for dinner. And I think they’re almost healthy enough to HAVE for dinner!! I’m so grateful!!! Also noting, I used half the Swerve and no stevia, and unflavored whey powder from Bob’s Red Mill. Perfection!

This is the best tasting dessert! I ended up using the vanilla protein powder and only 2 TBS of swerve along with the addition of 2 TBS of powdered peanut butter. They are so good! THANKS for the great recipe.

I rarely write comments under these recipes because it has to knock my socks off, and this surely did! Wow! I’m currently in Ketosis and can’t have a lot of carbs or any sugar, so this looked great. I used xylitol for the sweetener, but otherwise did everything the same. Thanks for a perfect recipe to satisfy my sweet tooth!

Will you get this? It’s 2018 now. Anyhow, we do have allergies here, severe ones. I’m a BIG FAN of WOWBUTTER. I know it’s work in this recipe. There are a few added sugars in it. Is that the worst thing in the world?
Thabks

Yep, hands down best keto dessert. I have tried dozens to upward of 100 over the last 6 years.I made my chocolate with bakers chocolate and cream. Kept it somewhat bitter as the filling is very sweet. I love the texture and plan To amount variations.

Any idea if it MUST be *whey* protein powder? I bought some SunWarrior (a vegan protein powder) a while back intending to use it for something specific… and then never did… now it just sits around. I’d like to use it not let it go to waste! At the same time I’d rather not experiment with it and risk wasting all the other ingredients. Although come to think of it I have no idea if the SunWarrior is low carb or not, hmm…

I don’t see how this recipe yields 35 bars? I cut mine pretty small (think funsize candy bar) and it only yielded 12. This makes me think the nutritional information must be way off on this. Are they supposed to by starburst size?

I agree, but I do use them as I don’t always have time to make my own. I have a recipe for homemade chocolate chips using regular unsweetened chocolate here. You can replace the cocoa butter with unsweetened chocolate to cut costs further.

Yes, avoid maltitol if you can. It’s horrendous on the digestive system and if you are diabetic, it will most certainly spike your blood sugar.

Great recipe; I’ve done them with a combination of whey and almond flour and I really like the texture. I’ve also subbed coconut oil for the butter but they really must be refrigerated if you go this route. Butter tastes better, though. 🙂 I like to use salted butter for these; it makes it taste more like a Reese’s cup to me. Thanks for all that you do, love your recipes!

Raley’s carries Lily’s sugar-free dark chocolates, using Erythritol and Stevia rather than maltitol. They are a bit more expensive than the Hershey’s/Walmart specials ($7/9oz chips, $5.50/4oz bar), but well worth it to avoid the intestinal distress maltitol puts me through!

Also, if you have your favorite erythritol/stevia blend at home in a powdered form (or a good blender / spice grinder to transform granulated into powdered), a chocolate melter or double boiler, and some cocoa butter, it is fairly straightforward to mix up your own sugar-free chocolates. Saves a little bit of money, obviously (just buy unsweetened chocolate bars at $3/4oz and melt into your favorite configuration, which comes just a little cheaper than Lily’s, but just 3 cents per ounce so probably not really worth it, or buy unsweetened bars off Amazon for 58 cents per ounce, at which point you are saving about 20 cents per ounce compared to picking up some Lily’s).

i made these yesterday and they are delightful. I put a few chocolate chips into the peanut butter mixture. They are a little addictive. I also found them a tad bit too sweet but that is true of most recipes that I use Swerve with. Just need to try half. I’m sure I will be making these again.

i also added ground flaxseed to the peanutbutter part (maybe 3/4 cup) and i liked it! the recipe was still a little too sweet for me, so I plan to cut down on the Swerve next time. I wonder what peanutbutter mixed with just vanilla protein powder would taste like. am curious if the erythritol is even needed.

These have become a staple in our house–a hit since the first time I made them. Our fridge is now never devoid of a batch of these lovely things! Since I didn’t have powdered erythritol when I made them for the first time, I used the granular kind; the texture is a little “crunchy” as a result, but we find that we actually like it that way and never looked back.

Question: do you think they could be made with xylitol? I have some of that on hand that I’d like to use up.

I have used xylitol as a one-for-one replacement for erythritol so it should work fine. I do prefer erythritol for most things, but xylitol is better in a lot of chocolate recipes where erythritol can crystallize.

A peanut flour should work and you may want to add some vanilla extract. I’m not sure if it will be a one for one replacement. I’d start with half the amount and check to see if the consistency is thick enough and taste is suitable. If you have whole milk powder you could sub in some of that as well.

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